Four Times Barry Scared His Friends
by PlainOldJane
Summary: Barry doesn't always remember that not everyone experiences the world at the same speed as him. Four stories of Barry unintentionally delivering real life jump scares.
1. Chapter 1

Being a speedster definitely had its perks: the extra half hour of sleep he got since he didn't have to do a traditional commute, the money he saved from not having to pay food delivery fees, and the cash saved on tickets to visit his friends in Star City were definitely major ones. However, there was one definite drawback: the ire he drew from his friends when he inevitably startles them.

The first time it had happened was early on in his tenure as the Flash. Barry could remember it quite clearly: it had been one of the worst ear boxings he had gotten in a long time, and a lesson in not rushing up on friends.

Barry's heart was pounding, his feet slapping the concrete at lightning pace as he weaved through the busy streets of Central City. His heart pounded (out of excitement and not exertion) and he found himself genuinely smiling for what felt like the first time in forever. Veering to the left, he darted over the bridge out of the city and into the wilderness.

After several laps of the county, the novelty started to wear off, and he figured he might as well return to STAR Labs and see what Cisco was up to. If anything, he could probably learn some new engineering jargon as Cisco tinkered on his latest gadget.

Barry dug his heals into the dirt, spraying it for several feet in front of him.

 _Crap, did Cisco mention if dirt stains this stuff?_ Barry internally panicked, patting at the now brown speckled legs of his suit. He groaned, he was definitely going to get an earful about abusing Cisco's baby.

Sighing, Barry set off for STAR Labs, choosing to face his fate right away. Within seconds, he arrived to the cortex but found no one there. Without pausing, he started weaving down the corridors, seeking any sign of life in the building.

It wasn't until he searched the very last of the rooms Cisco used for tinkering that he found him. Coming to a screeching halt in front of Cisco, ready to show him the damage to the suit.

"Cisco, so I may have stained the su-" Barry started to say, not quite making eye contact with Cisco.

Apparently, he had not given Cisco enough warning as he jumped backwards in shock, knocking his work table. The force against the table had been enough to send the tools and what seemed to be hundreds of screws in various sizes rolling to all corners of the room.

"Man! What the hell! Jesus, you're going to kill me if you sneak up on me like that!" Cisco shouted, bending over and clutching his chest.

"Crap, I'm sorry, I didn't -" Barry started to fumble over an apology.

"Agh, no. Just… leave the suit on the mannequin and let a dude know when you enter a room." Cisco said with wide eyes.

As Cisco exited the room, Barry could have sworn he heard him mutter something along the lines of needing to attach a 'damn bell' to the next iteration of his suit.


	2. Chapter 2

Barry knew he was running late for his and Iris's planned lunch at CC Jitters, but he had been sidetracked by a call from Cisco about the latest scanner he had completed to give to Team Arrow. They had growing issue with unwanted visitors to the Foundry wanted to do some justifiable scans of the premises every now and again to increase security.

"Dude you gotta take it to them today." Cisco insisted.

"Do they need it right now? I'm supposed to be at CC Jitters in ten minutes. I might be fast, but I can't get to Star City and back in ten minutes."

"I just had a thirty-minute conversation with Felicity about how much they need this thing and that was after I finally got a word in."

Barry paused, knowing that Felicity's spoken words per minute tended to go up with her stress levels. Sighing, he realized that he would definitely be late to one of his first dates with Iris.

"Fine, I'll be there in less than a minute to pick it up. Which room are you in?"

Cisco rattled off a room number and Barry took off in the direction of STAR Labs. After the first time Barry had inadvertently given Cisco a literal jump scare, they had agreed on a countdown system so Cisco 'wouldn't die of a heart attack prematurely'.

Barry quickly picked up the device and headed towards Star City. It was a shame he wouldn't be able to spend any time with Felicity or Oliver while he was there. He would definitely have to go back soon on non-superhero business.

As he passed the 'Entering Star City' sign, Barry glanced at his watch and felt his stomach churn. He was officially going to be late for his date with Iris unless he could break Mach 4 on his way back. It was early in their relationship and Barry was trying to make a good impression. It wasn't like Iris didn't already know Barry well, but he was trying to be his absolute best self for her. Apparently, he wouldn't be breaking his late streak today.

It didn't take Barry long to get to the Foundry. He figured that no one would be around since the team all had day jobs. He could just phase through the door, leave the device and a note, and do his best to beat his best pace on his way home.

When he got to the door, phased through and zipped to the center of the room and the large desks that housed Felicity's over powered computer set up. He quickly dropped the scanner and grabbed the nearest piece of paper and scribbled a note on it. In retrospect, he hoped the paper hadn't been of any importance. He should really stop and observe sometimes. Oh well.

Turning back to the door, he walked at normal pace. He was officially late for his date, and figured he should at least shoot Iris a text explaining the situation. Tapping out the message, he slowly stepped up to the door and phased through as he focused on the message he was sending to her. This had to be perfect.

He was so wound up in the text that he didn't notice the shell-shocked man standing in a puddle of soda with Big Belly Burger fries scattered at his feet.

"You can walk through walls now!?" Diggle exclaimed, slowly recovering from his shock.

"My bad, Diggle. Dropping off the scanner you guys wanted. Thought Cisco told you I'd be dropping by. Tell Oliver and Felicity I say hi." Barry quickly rambled, ignoring the obvious stunned state of the man in front of him, before taking off back to the date he had been looking forward to all week.

As he ran back to Central City, he checked to see if Iris had responded to his earlier text, hoping she wouldn't be too disappointed in him. One of these days, he would master the art of timeliness.


	3. Chapter 3

The third time he scared one of his friends was during the holiday season. It had been a quiet week; everyone, including criminals and malicious metahumans seemed to be preparing for Christmas. Barry was almost disappointed in the lack of activity. He was itching to get out and do some good in the City.

Glancing at the clock, he noted it was only three o'clock. He had already completed everything he needed to do today at work, without even using his speed. Even at CCPD things had been slow. Captain Singh only seemed to need him for basic DNA matching and document filing. He could do that stuff in his sleep.

Barry grabbed his jacket and sighed. While both of his jobs had been slow, he had taken it upon himself to get ahead of his holiday shopping, so he wouldn't have to scramble for gift ideas at the last minute (not to mention this way he could avoid the massive holiday shopping crowds).

For Cisco, he had gotten a set of specialty screwdrivers that he had mentioned needing as well as a few comic book referencing t-shirts. For Caitlin, he had gotten her a subscription to a niche biomedical publication and a fancy variety of teas for her to sample. For Joe, he had gotten all of their home videos and photos digitized and he got the best ones framed for the house. He had gotten small trinkets for each of the members of Team Arrow, and had hand delivered them the previous week (making sure to knock on the door and not phase through it).

For Iris, he had gotten… nothing. This was their first Christmas as a couple and he was stumped as to what to get her. It wasn't like he hadn't bought her gifts before, but this was different. This year he had to balance romance and thoughtfulness. He didn't want to give her something too romantic or over the top because he didn't want to scare her away or overwhelm her. But, the gift couldn't be like the ones he had previously given her because they were moving in such a different direction than they ever had.

It wasn't like he had left it to the last minute either, he had been agonizing over what to get her for months, but had come up with nothing. He had talked to Joe, Caitlin, Felicity, and even Linda (that had admittedly been a bad idea, but hey, Linda and Iris had worked together) and got no ideas.

Resigning himself to doing more shopping this evening, he debated about where to go. Central City was out of stores he hadn't scoured. Maybe a run to National City was in order.

Exiting CCPD, he meandered towards the shopping area of downtown, wistfully glancing in windows as he went. As he rounded the corner towards the longest road of shops he stopped dead in his tracks.

There, in the window was a display of books, written by one of the journalists that had inspired Iris to pursue the trade. She had told him as a kid that this journalist was all she aspired to be in life. Barry could feel the gears turning in his head as he rushed in the store.

Glancing at the author bio in the book's crisp jacket flap, he saw the journalist was currently residing in STAR City. Maybe Oliver knew her or had a connection to her as mayor? Maybe, just maybe, he could pull off a Christmas miracle and get a custom inscription for Iris. The book would be the perfect mix of romantic and thoughtful he was going for.

Feeling giddy, Barry sped towards his shared apartment with Iris. As he ran, he thought of at least four hiding places he could stash the book while he talked to Oliver about getting it signed. This was all turning out perfect. Iris had said she would be out late tonight finishing up a story, so he should have all the time he needed to stash the book and start making calls.

Running through the building and into his unit, he came to a screeching halt when he saw that Iris was already home. Luckily, he had the forethought to hide the gift behind his back when he saw her.

Iris had been holding a box when she noticed him. Jumping, she sent packing peanuts flying in all directions.

"Barry! What are you doing home so early? I thought you were at work until five?" She quickly rearranged the peanuts to cover what was in the box.

"No, I finished all my lab work and decided to cut out early. What's in the box?"

"Your Christmas present, so I need you to turn around and head back out, so I can finish wrapping it." She smiled.

He felt his interest pique but decided to not question her any further. Pecking her on the cheek, he turned on his heal and started in the direction of STAR Labs to go make the calls to Oliver.

This was turning out to be one of his best Christmases yet.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been over four years since the first time Barry met Oliver. At the time, Oliver had distinctly disliked Barry at the time. He had represented a threat to Oliver's identity and therefore his friends and family. Barry learned quickly that once Oliver considered someone a friend, he was fiercely protective of them. While he wouldn't openly say it, Barry liked to think Oliver considered him a best friend.

Barry, on the other hand, had definitely considered Oliver a friend and a confidant basically since they met. Meeting Oliver was almost a symbolic start of his life as a hero. He had saved Oliver's life (with rat poison no less) days before the particle accelerator had knocked him into a coma.

Hell, if Barry having an open invitation to drop into Oliver's life without notice wasn't a sign of friendship, he wasn't sure what was. Maybe Barry's disorganization had flowed through their friendship to Oliver.

While their friendship had had its ups and downs, overall, they had had few fights and really respected each other. However, there was one glaring spot in their friendship that Barry had never really gotten over: the first time him and Barry trained together.

During his first year as a superhero, Oliver had been crucial to Barry adjusting to his new life. He had trained him not only physically, but also mentally for his new night job. Most of their training sessions had gone well: what Barry lacked in tactical skills and experience he made up for in raw talent.

It wasn't until the two teams had to work together to eliminate Bivolo that one of their training sessions had gone awry. It was almost exactly three years ago now that Oliver had told Barry to that he would get shot by an arrow and Barry had been arrogant enough to doubt that.

While it had been a critical lesson for Barry (and oh man, had he taken it to heart – arrows to the back _hurt_ no matter how fast he healed), he had never come to grips with the fact that Oliver was seemingly able to easy shoot his friend with no sympathy, and even worse, no apology.

Barry had been plotting his revenge for three years. His revenge plans mostly erred on the side of light hearted, but every time he came close to executing them big interruptions happened in Oliver's life (Felicity dumping him, Roy faking his death, Felicity being paralyzed, finding out he had a son) and Barry didn't want to add to his plate.

However, right now everything was optimal in Oliver's life. He had gotten back with Felicity (and married her in a shared ceremony with him and Iris), had a new relationship with his son, and a strong vigilante support team. Now was his turn to finally get his revenge.

This particular plan had been thrown together relatively at the last minute. Oliver wasn't easily shaken, he was unfazed every time Barry raced up to him (unlike Diggle), so he knew he would have to bring out the big guns to get any kind of reaction out of Oliver.

He knew he was going to need backup. Felicity was immediately out of the question. Her fast talking had a way of leaking information at a pace Barry could hardly keep up with. The newcomers to the team were out too, Barry just didn't know whether they would spill to Oliver. That left Diggle.

When he had first reached out to Diggle, he had seemed a little too eager to get to Oliver. It seemed that his reactions to Barry's – uh – _sudden_ appearances had become infamous roasting fodder in the Arrow Cave. He was eager to shift some of the heat to anyone but himself, and who better than the stoic man himself?

So that's how Barry found himself with a well practiced plan (he had been practicing for weeks on mannequins around the labs, as no one had wanted to be a live practice dummy), a more-than-willing accomplice and a goal in mind. It was time to set the wheels in motion.

Diggle's part of the plan was simple: get Oliver in the right place, have the speed sensors temporarily disabled, and get a recording of the whole incident after. A brief text the speedster received moments ago told him that that part of the mission had been completed. He couldn't help but marvel at how smoothly his plan was going so far.

With one last deep breath, Barry began to sprint towards the Arrow Cave (yes, he knew that's not what Oliver liked to call it, but damn it, it was catchy). He phased through the door with no issues (a nice by product of the practice he had been putting towards this plan was how much he had honed his phasing skills). Without pausing, Barry scanned the room until he saw Oliver, locking his sights on his long-awaited target. Charging forward, he ran towards Oliver at speeds he's sure would rival his personal fastest.

At the very last microsecond, Barry phased through Oliver and executed the last part of the plan: stealing the man's suit and leaving him in nothing but his designer boxers. Finally, he left the note he had penned explaining the reasoning for the incident.

Continuing, he sprinted to just outside of the door, unable to stop himself from indulging in hearing the aftermath of his perfectly executed plan.

Though, it might have been too soon to declare the plan as perfectly executed.

At the same moment he had come to a stop, Barry felt a piercing pain in his back. Biting back a yelp, he glanced behind him, and saw the telltale arrow sticking out from his suit.

That day taught Barry three very important lessons: always case your _entire_ environment, an eye for an eye means you end up getting shot with another arrow, and never _ever_ trust Diggle to go up against Felicity's carefully configured security system.


End file.
